Dems go all in for abortion rights

This was supposed to be an election in which the economy dominated the debate, social issues took a backseat and the culture wars were put on hold.

Yet in the homestretch of the 2012 campaign, abortion politics is coloring races up and down the ticket.

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And it’s by design.

Democrats have gone all in for abortion rights, with none of the hedging or defensiveness they’ve shown in recent years — a subtle but striking repositioning with political consequences that extend far beyond Nov. 6.

The evidence of it is impossible to miss. The airwaves are choked with messaging about women’s reproductive health. Abortion rights advocates had prime speaking roles at the Democratic convention. Contraception advocate Sandra Fluke is a prominent campaign trail surrogate. Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood, recently introduced President Barack Obama at a Virginia campaign rally.

While Democrats have long supported a woman’s right to choose, this year’s full-throated embrace of abortion rights — from the president down to the most obscure House candidate — marks a historic departure that now places the party as firmly and unyieldingly in support of abortion rights as the GOP is in opposition.

The long-term implications of that shift worry some Democrats — who long shied away from being the party of “abortion on demand,” in the phrase of their GOP opponents, to avoid alienating voters who favor some restrictions or find it morally troubling. But with the White House and Senate hanging in the balance, Obama and the party have replaced that political caution with a new political calculus — that it’s the GOP that looks extreme and out of touch, particularly to women voters who will help decide the election.

Democrats point to controversial statements of GOP Senate candidates such as Richard Mourdock of Indiana and Todd Akin of Missouri, and a Republican legislative agenda — both in statehouses and in Congress — as the forces driving the heightened focus on abortion rights. They’re especially incensed by the GOP’s fight against the Obama administration’s contraception rule and the drive to defund Planned Parenthood — putting new issues on the table that, in their view, shouldn’t be controversial.

Advocates on both sides of the issue agree that a post- Roe v. Wade threshold has been crossed in this election, even if they disagree on the forces that have reshaped the debate or its implications.

“Absolutely there has been an embracing of pro-choice values to a degree we’ve never seen before,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, who had a prime speaking role at the Democratic National Convention. “I’ve always felt that the issue of protecting a woman’s right to choose is a winning issue. Women care about it, and they will decide this election.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that supports anti-abortion candidates, views the Democratic strategy as “a big gamble.”

“The threshold that has been crossed is that every bit of energy has been placed behind this,” she said. “Strategy, messaging and tactics are all aligned with that full embrace. It’s a gift for us. It’s 100 percent clarity on where they stand.”